The sponsorship deal negotiated by Lord Mawhinney is worth £3m more than the present one with Coca Cola. Photograph: Tom Jenkins

Lord Mawhinney will leave another positive legacy to the Football League today, when a record sponsorship deal worth £7m a year is signed off.

The three-year agreement will see Npower take over the title sponsorship of the Championship, League One and League Two from Coca-Cola. The deal represents an improvement of £3m on Coca-Cola's most recent £18m, three‑year backing.

In what was one of the last acts of a successful seven‑year chairmanship, Mawhinney has ensured his successor, Greg Clarke, can benefit from relative financial security.

The League had its pick of candidates and even rejected a bigger financial offer from the bookmaker, Coral. The Gloucester Place board did not consider that a headline association with a betting operator would be appropriate.

The increase in sponsorship revenues, which will be accompanied by further announcements of minority deals in the coming weeks, demonstrates that League football continues to grow in a recession. This season is also the midway point in the record £264m broadcast deal with Sky and the BBC, which constituted a 134% rise in income from the previous one.

Npower is expected to assist in grass-roots coaching programmes as it operates the sponsorship. The energy firm runs similar schemes through its backing of English cricket's summer Tests. But the adding of another football property to its portfolio after Wembley and England 2018's World Cup bid will cast some doubt over its future commitment to cricket.

Pompey mysterious fifth man

Portsmouth's fifth potential owner of the season is the millionaire property developer Rob Lloyd. Or at least Lloyd's unnamed friend, who is confident enough to put forward down a non-refundable deposit of £3m to enter a period of exclusive negotiations talks with the administrator. But Lloyd's enthusiasm is puzzling people those who know the extent of Pompey's assets and liabilities. One source said: "Portsmouth as a property play is nonsense. It's worthless." That is because all that remains with Portsmouth is the stadium and the players: the real property value resides with the pockets of land held by Sasha Gaydamak's Miland Developments. Yet Gaydamak's land is currently not worth anything to him either, since any development there must be carried out in conjunction with the club. As the largest single creditor, Gaydamak controls the outcome of Portsmouth's administration. Anyone else who comes in must satisfy his claims for £30.5m. Safe to say Lloyd is not unlikely to have stumped up £3m for nothing. So until his backer makes himself known, there may be a question as to whether this is Gaydamak making a comeback.

Mawhinney's parting shot

During a valedictory address at the Football League awards on Sunday night, Lord Mawhinney could not resist a parting shot for the Football Association's flagship competition. "Remember a few years ago people were saying: 'I'm not too sure about the Carling Cup final'?" They're not saying that any more. But they are saying: 'I'm a bit concerned about the FA Cup.'" And with the way David Sheepshanks had set up Mawhinney's affectionately received speech, some present thought League bigwigs were queuing up to take a pop at Wembley. Sheepshanks, though, has since said he did not have the Football Association chairman, Lord Triesman, in mind when he said in his introduction: "Not many people who come into football after a career in politics leave with their reputations enhanced."

Brown's returns to stable interest

So football loses Phil Brown, one of its more colourful characters – and not because of his tan alone. Now that he no longer has to berate his players publicly at half-time and oversee fighting on the training ground, he has more time for his other pursuits. And what could be more appropriate right now than co-owning a racehorse, Best Trip, with Hull City's former chairman, Paul Duffen? Brown and Duffen are among a handful of senior figures in football who have been involved with horseflesh. Others include Sir Alex Ferguson, Sam Allardyce and Harry Redknapp.